One Punch Man: Naruto
by VaingloriousHound
Summary: I think the title says it all. Fucking overpowered one-hit Naruto. Yay! Maybe some Fem!SasukeXNaruto. Maybe not. Maybe just some good old NaruHina. We'll see.
1. Chapter 1

**Stronger**

**A/N: How I came to write this, I dunno, but after being awake for 48 hours it seemed like a good idea. This is basically Naruto as Saitama from One Punch Man. Just a bit adjusted, of course. Naruto ain't bald.**

* * *

"-Five-hundred... seventy-two!" a man's voice barked roughly, echoing through the clearing. The exclamation was followed by an explosive breath of air and a strained grunt.

"Five-hundred... seventy-three!"

The young man's voice echoed loudly over the clearing in the lush forest. His blonde hair was slick with sweat, his white shirt drenched just as well. The man's face was but an inch from the ground, his teeth grit to a painful degree as he willed his arms to push himself up again. His breathing was ragged and loud, strong enough to send the dust on the ground away in small waves. His sweat was pooling underneath him and with a mighty heave, his arms snapped straight again.

"_Fivehunderedseventyfour_!" he all but screamed with what little oxygen had remained in his lungs. His arms shook under his own body weight but he refused to give in. His mouth was wide open as he tried to inhale more and more oxygen, his torso heaving with every breath like it could be his last. There were tears in his sky blue eyes, the odd whisker marks stood out starkly even on his rather tan skin. In the corners of his mouth were trails of dry and caked blood from the times he had bitten his own lip to keep himself from passing out that day.

The young man looked about ready to die. No one sane or even fanatic would have continued at this point but even as his arms threatened to simply fall apart, he let his body drop to the ground yet again, catching himself just before his nose touched the ground. Veins bulged on his temples, his arms strained visibly and he tried to do yet another push up.

His body didn't budge, his arms no longer strong enough to push him up. The blonde man grit his teeth, his eyes closing tightly. "Not-! Yet-!" he grit out, "I need to-! Be _stronger_!"

His conviction was unfazed by his weakening body. In his blue eyes was a fire, a power greater than any there was before. With an primal snarl, he pushed his body up yet again but he didn't have the breath to count.

The sun was setting behind the trees hours later but the young man was still there, doing push ups.

"Sevenhundred-! _Fifty_!" his voice rang out and he showed no sign of stopping.

People had long forgotten about him, about Naruto Uzumaki, the academy dropout. No one cared for what he did, so no one knew why he trained like he did. Years ago people had stopped caring about the outcast, the one they had called a demon. He was but a pariah, a thorn in the villagers side.

But he'd show them. His will was unyielding and he was bringing his body up to speed. No one would have thought what would become of the boy they had chosen to scorn.

* * *

He was on his last lap around the village, on lap seven-hundred and then some. His heavy and harsh breathing had long since replaced his counting of laps. Naruto's throat was dry, his lungs burned with every breath and his legs felt as if they weren't even there anymore. He was walking on dead limbs, but his eyes were still focused, if the exhaustion threatened to let them fall shut. The fire burned in his blue eyes, stronger and stronger with every day. Almost three years had passed since he had failed the academy. Almost three years since he swore he'd become stronger.

With a hoarse scream of defiance he pushed on, breaking into a full sprint. The tree he had used as starting point was just ahead of him, not even half a mile. For a second, the world seemed to black out. Everything faded and his vision went dark. Naruto blinked twice and stumbled over a tree root, the root of his goal.

He wanted to laugh, but couldn't. He was too tired. Tomorrow he would do it again and the day after that. He wouldn't stop until he was strong enough. It was barely September when Naruto passed out underneath the tree.

* * *

It was winter in Konoha, fluffy white snow was covering the streets of the village and people had begun decorating their houses or shops for the upcoming festivities. Bright red and yellow glow illuminated the busy market streets and bathed them in warm light that could almost let one forget about the freezing temperatures.

Almost.

"_Achoo_!"

The young blonde man sneezed violently, his whole body spasming once. He loudly sniffed his runny nose, his bleary blue eyes focused on the crowded street ahead of him.

"I hate the cold!" he grumbled to himself, tightening his navy blue coat around his shoulders. For added protection he raised the fur lined collar up high, shielding his red cheeks form the wind. He pulled what appeared to be a coupon from deep within his coat, peering a it.

A smile appeared on his lips. "Oh yeah," he said quietly to himself, "Fifty percent off Ramen!" He strode on through the market with a slight spring in his step. No one recognized him, no one cared about him. Just as it should be.

Naruto arrived at his destination minutes later, a Ramen stand at the very end of the market. Ichiraku's Ramen stand wasn't as popular during the winter season than it was during the summer, but it served the best ramen in all of the land of fire. At least, according to Naruto, who had yet to leave the village. At all.

He was about to enter when a group of blurs passed by right in front of him, so fast in fact that the coupon he held in his hand got blown away. Naruto blinked owlishly after the precious piece of paper. "Oh no, you don't!" he exclaimed and... vanished.

There was and odd disturbance in the air where had been standing, a shimmering like a heat haze before Naruto appeared again, holding his coupon. It all happened so fast, no one had even noticed. With a satisfied grin, Naruto entered the Ramen stand.

"Pops! Twelve helpings of your best Ramen! Half off!"

* * *

The chunin exams were as good as finished. There was to be a huge tournament in the stadium not too far from where Naruto lived so he decided to go see how strong his former classmates had become. Since he had stopped playing pranks and cause mayhem, no one even seemed to recognize him anymore, so buying a ticket was no problem. Finding a seat in the crowded stadium, however, was.

"Man...," he sighed to himself. "Where did all these people come from?"

Naruto stood atop a pillar on the stadium roof, trying to find the row he was supposed to sit in. Squinting down into the crowd, he caught a glimpse of bright purple and knew of only one person with hair that crazy. He hadn't seen her since forever, but now was as good a time as any! He vanished from the stone pillar he had been standing on. It cracked ominously as he kicked off but remained standing.

He appeared in a flurry of wind and dust in the aisle next to Sakura's row, the girl with the pink hair. She blinked against the sudden bout of wind and immediately looked in his direction.

"Hey Sakura!" he greeted cheerfully, "It's been ages!"

She squinted, apparently not recognizing him. Then her mouth fell open. "N-Naruto?" she asked shakily. "Is that you?"

He laughed loudly and sat himself down in the empty seat to her side. "Why yes! Come on, I can't look that different!"

Then again, he did. Ever since he had begun training and eating properly, he had shot up almost a foot. His hair was shorter, his features lacking any baby fat. And he had gotten rid of the jumpsuit. That must have been it.

"Is it because of the clothes?" he asked, pulling at his tight, blue tee. "Or the hair?"

Sakura just nodded as her eyes roamed his frame. "I..uh, I mean, what... what happened to you?"

Naruto furrowed his brow. "What do you mean, happened?" He crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I failed the academy. That was pretty much it."

"I remember that!" she snapped back. "But you look so... so...-"

"Oi Sakura!" a voice interrupted. "Whose the hunk that took my seat?"

Naruto swiveled around in his seat, immediately recognizing the teal eyes he found himself looking into. "Ino!" he greeted with a laugh. "How's it going?"

The blonde girl recoiled a bit, eyes wide. "Naruto!? Holy shit!" She leaned to the side, looking past him at Sakura. "Holy shit!" she repeated to her.

"I know, right?" Sakura returned, nodding feverishly.

"What?" Naruto asked, looking from one girl to the other. "What did I miss?"

Ino waved her hand dismissively at his question. "Nothing," she said nonchalantly while she smoothed down her top. She still wore it midriff free. "But that's my seat."

"Oh," he made, "Well, then I'll better find mine. I did buy a ticket after all."

When he tried to stand up, Ino pushed him back down. "Oh that's fine," she said lowly, fluttering her admittedly long eyelashes at him, "You can stay." Her hand rested firmly on his shoulder, squeezing a bit. "One condition, though."

"Okay...," Naruto said, remembering some of the conditions she had set back in the academy when he wanted something. Like his money. Or one of the Uchiha's hair. "Name it."

She smiled strangely at him, eyes just a little bit narrowed and her head lightly tilted. "You can stay but I'll sit in your lap."

From his right he heard Sakura gasp. He, however, didn't find anything especially malevolent in it. He shrugged. "Sure. Help yourself." He patted his knee.

Ino all but threw herself against him, rump first. He was almost forced to exhale. Good that his body had become somewhat resilient against... well, a lot of things. Impact was just one of them.

As Ino got comfortable by more or less leaning against him, Naruto asked Sakura, "So who's fighting?"

There was something in Sakura's eyes as she watched Ino wiggle and squirm away in his lap but it disappeared as soon as her eyes met his. "Oh, uh, actually-"

_**"Number 2, Uchiha! Enter the arena!"**_

"Ah," Naruto made, "so the brooding one is up first." He chuckled to himself. "Haven't seen that one in ages. How's she doing?"

"She's on my team," Sakura explained, scowling at Ino, who had thrown an arm around his neck. He merely smiled back, not sure what that was about. "Me and Kiba didn't make it into the finals, Satsuki was the only one."

"Two kunoichi on one team?" Naruto wondered aloud. "Didn't they... not do that?"

Sakura nodded. "Yes, well... we were one boy short after you... uh..." She let it hang there.

"After I failed," Naruto said casually. "So they threw Kiba at you instead?"

Ino interrupted whatever Sakura was about to answer. "And they got me with Shika and Choji!" she whined. "Both of them were so lazy, we didn't even make it out of the forest!"

"Forest?" Naruto asked before he could stop himself. There was only one he could think of besides the general abundance of trees around Konoha. And the one he thought of had served pretty well as training ground. Not that there was anything left to train with. He may or may not have accidentally exterminated the entire animal population of the place.

"Yeah," Ino whispered directly into his ear. Her breath tickled so he leaned away a bit to face her. She pouted for a second. "The Forest of Death. Lots of bugs and leeches in there..." She shuddered, throwing her other arm around his neck as well, essentially hugging him. Now this situation was beginning to become uncomfortable.

Sakura coughed loudly. "Ino, do you mind?" she asked angrily, glaring at the two of them. What did _he_ do wrong?

"I do, yes," Ino returned with a wry smile, placing her head on his shoulder.

There was a chill in the air between the two girl and Naruto suddenly wanted to be somewhere else. "Uh... w-whose Satsuki's opponent?" he asked in an attempt to shift the topic away from... well, whatever this was.

Sakura, still glaring at Ino, answered him. "It's the redhead. Gaara of the Sands." Fear, real fear, crept into her features. "He's a monster. He butchered one of our teams in the forest."

Naruto's easygoing features hardened, his eyes narrowed and the smile disappeared from his lips. For a split second it appeared as if someone else entirely was sitting there. Someone angry. Someone powerful. It was all over before Sakura could even blink but the lingering presence of _something_ still served to put everyone in the vicinity on edge.

"Think she can beat him?" he asked, again an easy smile on his face.

Sakura blinked rapidly as her eyes darted around wildly, tying to pinpoint the raw power she had just felt. When she didn't come up with anything, she made a dismissive noise though her nose. "As if anyone could beat Satsuki."

Naruto laughed. "I remember you saying that before. Well, I certainly never could." He couldn't beat anyone back then. Now however...

"No one could," Sakura said, laughing nervously. "She got even stronger. We survived a fight with Orochimaru!"

Now she sounded rather eager. The name sounded familiar to Naruto. Was it something Iruka had once said? "Orochimaru?" he asked.

Ino looked at him with disbelief. "Are you kidding? How can you be such a hottie and not know who that is?!"

Were these two things connected? And since when was he a hottie? "Ah, I dunno?" he asked, smiling lightly. "So tell me, who is that guy?"

"Not sure it was a guy," Sakura mumbled under her breath. "He's on of the three legendary Sannin, a former student of the Third."

"Of the old man?" Naruto asked. "Why would a student of him attack you?"

He could see Sakura's fist twitch. She had wanted to hit him again! "Let me finish, god dammit! He betrayed Konoha years ago! He did a lot of weird experiments to villagers he abducted. And just over a month ago he put this weird seal on Satsuki!"

Naruto nodded. He had no idea who that guy was. "I see," he said, trying to look more serious. "So... where is Satsuki then?"

Sakura's excited face fell and she glowered back into the arena. "Our lazy ass sensei is keeping her back, I swear! Always late!" Her voice was rising considerably as she spoke.

"Geez Sakura," Ino huffed from his lap, apparently disappointing that he hadn't done whatever the hell she wanted him to do, "You always whine about Hatake but isn't he actually really hot? And, like, just a few years older than us?"

Sakura's pale skin darkened with an intense blush. "I-! No-! He isn't!" she stammered out. "S-Shut up! Ino-pig!"

"But Naruto is even hotter," she more or less purred, patting his chest as if it were something precious.

He didn't feel particularly hot. Then again, maybe they were referring to something else? The way Ino was looking at him like he was hot ramen made him uncomfortable. "Look, they're starting," he said.

Sure enough, down in the very center of the arena, a tall silver haired man appeared. At his side, a young woman with long black hair.

Naruto felt an odd flutter in his chest. There she was, even more beautiful than he remembered. The girl - no, _woman_ that had inspired him to grow stronger. Once upon a time he had envied her. Petty jealousy over her strength had driven him to humiliate himself over and over again. And when he failed the academy, when the harsh reality of it all came crashing down, only then did Naruto see just how lonely she was. But he also saw how strong she was, to keep fighting with tooth and nail even after her whole clan, her _family_, had been all but slaughtered.

Naruto had heard the stories the people told among themselves on the streets. How Itachi murdered every single Uchiha, every man, woman and child only to leave his little sister behind in a pool of blood. Naruto didn't have an easy life but it was far from hard. Even after the whole ninja thing had failed, Naruto still got supported by the old man, by the Hokage himself. And how many other orphans could say that from themselves?

Maybe it had been the fact that, despite all his loneliness and pain, he had still been better off than Satsuki, that drove him to go even further. Strength was his goal, but it wasn't for him. He was becoming strong for her, for all the lonely ones out there. If he was strong enough, he could prevent all that from happening to anyone else. Maybe it was impossible, maybe he could never grow strong enough, but he would strive to go as far as his body allowed. So he could at least protect those close to himself; the old man, the chef Teuchi and his daughter and, most of all, Satsuki.

Saying that the girl needed protection was kind preposterous. Just by looking at her Naruto could tell that she was strong in her own right. She emanated an aura of power, of the calm before the storm. Her muscles were defined, her eyes wide awake and she held her head high, not with pride but with dead certainty that she could win this fight.

In these years since he had last seen her on the graduation ceremony Satsuki had grown into a women. Unlike Sakura, her body had filled out, if not too much for a young adult. Her frame was slim and slender, but probably nothing but muscle, tendon and chakra. Her hair was captured in a high pony tail, though her rather messy hair was all but straight. It reached down to her hips, swaying gently in the breeze. She wore a high collared, short sleeved shirt with the Uchiha fan on the back. It was the very same shade of blue that his shirt was. Underneath that, she wore what had to be padded body armor, the black fabric ran down the length of her arms and covered her left entirely like a glove. Her legs were almost entirely bare, safe for the ridiculously short spats she was wearing and the two black knee protectors.

Involuntarily Naruto swallowed. Just about know he'd understand the "hottie" thing. Was it getting warmer here?

Suddenly a defeated sounding sigh came from Ino, which forced him to tear his eyes from Satsuki. She disentangled herself from him and stood, stretching her arms far above the head. "Well, I see that there's no chance for me," she remarked rather sullenly. "With the way you look at her, sheesh, I wonder why I didn't feel that through your pants."

It took about half a minute for Naruto to grasp what she had implied. "W-What!?" she sputtered, "I wasn't-!"

"You say that", Sakura added, grinning at him. "But you almost drooled all over Ino while staring at Satsuki like some lost puppy."

"I did _not_ drool!" he defended, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"So you admit to staring at her then?" Ino asked, grinning just as evilly as Sakura.

"No!" he exclaimed. He hadn't been staring! Why would he? It wasn't polite! "I was... observing," he said lamely, grasping for the right words. "I mean, it's been years and all that..."

"You didn't look at me like I was some tasty pastry and it's been years too," Sakura said in a sing sung voice, prodding his chest with her finger.

Naruto bit his tongue and stopped himself from saying something stupid. It probably wasn't a good idea to mention that Sakura had barely changed aside from a few inches in height and the shorter hair. If he had learned anything in his time _after_ the academy, then it was that woman didn't like to be described in a way that wasn't flattering. Apparently the size of a woman's breasts were something rather sore unless they were... a handful, he remembered some old and drunk guy telling him.

Looking at Sakura's... well, that wasn't eve half a hand. But, wisely enough, Naruto held his tongue. He mentally patted himself on the shoulder for that one.

"So you admit it!" Ino crowed, still standing in front of him.

He swallowed. Why was this making him so uncomfortable? "I admit that this is your seat," he said hastily, "So I better go find mine!"

Naruto didn't give them any time to stop him and briskly left in search for his actual seat. On his way he heard the proctor of the match cough violently before calling out with a surprisingly loud voice, **_"Hajime!"_**

* * *

She didn't waste any time fooling around. That guy had literally squashed a whole team from Konoha with his sand and more or less crippled Lee in the preliminaries. Lee had been fast enough to get through the sand but had been too tired to finish though.

She wasn't about to make the same mistake.

Like Kakashi had taught her, she forced chakra though her muscles and shot off as soon as the proctor called the match. Her Sharingan enabled her to see clearly at the high speed she was moving at but just before her fist could connect solidly with the redheads face, his sand intercepted her. It was like hitting a spongy brick. Minimally yielding but not budging and inch.

More or less grasping the shield midair she swung herself around, both knees aiming for the back of his head. The sand was there again, but this time she managed to punch though it. As fast as possible she let her left foot follow the breach and actually hit him. Still, it felt like kicking a stone.

But, not even ten seconds into the match, she had landed a solid hit. She could work with that. This guy wouldn't be much of a problem. His sand armor wouldn't protect him from a sever concussion. He stumbled a few feet but his sand was already lashing out at her and she had to jump back a few times.

Gaara grinned wickedly at her. "Mother will enjoy your blood, Uchiha!" he crowed maniacally, crazed eyes focused on her.

"Doubt it," she returned simply. "I won't be the one bleeding today." Because if she couldn't beat that freak, how could she ever hope to beat Itachi?

Gaara roared in rage and the fight continued.

* * *

"She's good," Naruto mumbled to himself, watching how Satsuki weaved her way though the many, many limbs of sand that tried to pierce her. That and her legs flexed rather nicely whenever she crouched low. Uh... Well, that was a new thought, Naruto noted. Not that he'd deny it; Satsuki _was_ beautiful.

Some guy in front of him snorted. "The Uchiha is nothing against our prodigy."

Naruto focused on the people that sat in front of him for the first time since he had squeezed his way in here. All of them looked almost the same. Straight and rather long brown hair that was neatly combed back and matching beige kimonos with a symbol on each of their backs. Which clan was that again? Samey looking pricks... Oh, right! The Hyuuga! Shouldn't that mean...

"Oi! Hinata!" he called out once he spotted her, only one row and two seats away from him.

The girl jumped a little and made a noise of surprise. Well, even without her squeamish behavior she would have stuck out like a sore thumb amidst these losers with her raven hair and that blueish tint in them. Just like Satsuki, Hinata had grown to be a young woman since he had last seen her. Her hair was longer, her features more delicate and refined. And boy did she have big breasts. But, even though that was a good thing, Naruto had learned not to comment on that just as well. It was even worse when done in presence of family, which all those pricks probably were in one way or another.

"Naruto!" she called back, sounding rather happy. And, wow, she didn't stutter at all! That was one hell of an improvement. They had talked a lot in is last year at the academy after she had stumbled upon him almost drowning when he tried water walking. Well, he should have learned how to swim first.

The man that sat besides her scowled something fierce at Hinata but she shrugged it off like some soft breeze. Ignoring the guy completely, she stood up and actually made her way over to him. The seats besides him were still free (apparently not everyone had forgotten him) and Hinata took the one on his right. She smiled nervously at him but didn't almost faint like she always did when he suddenly showed up rather close to her.

For a while he had wondered if she was allergic to him in some way.

"Hey there, long time no see," he said with a small grin. "How have you been doing?"

"A long time indeed," she responded wistfully. "And I'm... fine, I suppose. I didn't make it into the finals, after all." She put a hand over her chest with a pained expression. Had she been wounded? "What have you been up to all those years?"

Naruto shrugged. "Well, first of all, I moved to the other side of Konoha. You know, the red light district and just a block away from that."

She nodded. "Well... that would explain why I haven't seen you at all. I'm not really around the, uhm, red light district." She twirled a strand of her raven her between her fingers.

Naruto laughed. "Oh I wonder why." He glanced at the man that was still glaring at her. "And I bet he's the reason."

Hinata's smile faltered a bit. "My father is... very strict."

Naruto frowned. No father should stare with so much disdain at his own daughter. "Yeah well, screw him," he said, loud enough for the man to hear him. His eyes met Naruto's but he didn't falter. Eventually, the Hyuuga averted his eyes. With a victorious huff Naruto turned back to Hinata. "So why is the whole bunch of pricks here with you?"

Hinata giggled before quickly hiding it behind her hand. "My cousin is fighting today," she said, looking down into the arena, where Gaara was holed up in a sphere of is own sand. "Right after this fight, actually."

Naruto tilted his head in thought. "Hmm... did I meet him before?"

She shook her head. "No, he was one year ahead of us. I... lost my fight against him in the preliminaries."

Naruto's eyes softened and his smile dimmed a bit. "Did he do that to you?"

Hinata's hand tightened in the fabric of her jacket over her chest. "I was defeated," she said solemnly, "I just wasn't strong enough."

Naruto nodded, returning his eyes to the fight. "You can always grow stronger," he said. "You just have to work hard enough. And never give up."

* * *

Satsuki frowned down at the sand shield Gaara was hiding in from the arena wall she stood on. Her left arm was probably broken. Thankfully she didn't need both hands to do the technique.

Gathering lightning in her palm felt like breathing to her. For a month straight she had practiced, driving herself into the ground to perfect this technique and grow stronger. The chakra flowed freely down into her palm, the spark of lightning consumed it all and not even half a breath after she had begun, she held the force of a lightning storm in her hand. It shrieked like a thousand birds fleeing in terror and the air crackled with power.

**"Chidori!"** she hissed harshly, already feeling the drain on her reserves. And then she simply let go off the wall.

She was falling almost freely, only occasionally kicking the wall to avoid hitting it's slight curve. The force of her technique tore asunder the stone of the arena wall as she passed, leaving a smoldering trail behind. Just a few feet above ground she kicked off the wall with all her might and shot off like a rocket towards Gaara's shell. Even with her Sharingan it was hard to keep track of everything.

Her hand shot out and served through the sand shield like a hot knife through butter. Satsuki passed the sphere completely, cleaving it in half. And ear shattering crack and a howl of pain followed.

Satsuki barely managed to stop on both feet when Garra's twisted voice rang across the arena. "BLOOD!" he howled, "IT'S MY BLOOD!"

His voice was loud enough to force her to cover her ears. There was an ominous pulse of malevolent energy, one unlike anything she had ever felt, before Gaara's sphere exploded. The sand erupted into all directions like a tsunami and Satsuki was forced to flee to the arena wall yet again. Monstrous limbs of sand with blackened spikes growing from all over them rose from the arena floor. Pale violet markings covered the arm-like appendages like veins as they continued to grow rove and flail in the arena. The merged into one, truly monstrous arm that was attached to Gaara, the veined sand covering half is body. Half his face had transformed into something animalistic, his eye now golden and it's screla pitch black.

The thing howled again, a deranged noise that rattled Satsuki's bones. _What the hell is that guy!?_

She had not time to question what the hell was going on as she was forced to flee from the terrifyingly fast hand that attacked her.

* * *

The whole stadium shook and Naruto rose from his seat, as did most of the others around him. "What the hell is that?" he asked aloud, his body already tensing.

Hinata didn't have much of a chance to say anything when something exploded above the stadium. Fathers began to rain down all around him and most people suddenly slumped back into their seats, fast asleep. The whole of the Hyuuga seemed entirely unimpressed by the falling feathers, as were a few ninja still on their feet.

"A genjutsu?" he heard Hinata mumble just as a kunai came flying straight at her.

Naruto caught it without even blinking, the blade didn't even cut his skin. Naruto leveled his icy blue glare at the guy that had thrown the knife. With an almost casual flick of the wrist, the weapon was sent back to the enemy ninja. It tore straight though him, causing an explosion of dust and debris in the stands behind him. Hinata was looking at him as if he had grown a second and maybe even a third head.

"What?" he asked, just as he caught the second and third kunai, with one hand and not even looking in the general direction.

She was gaping at this point. "That was amazing!" she pressed out eventually.

He shrugged. "Well, maybe. But shouldn't we, like, actually do something about... well, whatever that is? An attack?"

"An invasion," someone drawled lazily from behind him. "Hinata, go report to your sensei. She has orders for you and your team."

As Naruto turned to eye the silver haired man that had appeared with Satsuki, Hinata quickly saluted and with a last longing look at Naruto, sprinted away.

"Any orders for me?" Naruto asked, leaning slightly to the left and letting a kunai whiz by his ear.

Kakashi shrugged. "You are a civilian. One would expect you to enter the bunkers."

"So technically, I can do what I want?" Naruto asked, punching a passing enemy ninja hard enough to send him flying all across the width of the arena.

The jonin whistled lowly as he followed the man's flight path. "Technically," he affirmed. "As long as you punch the bad guys, I suppose it's fine."

There was a gleam in Naruto's eyes as he casually ducked under a vicious kick that had been aimed at his head. His elbow sent the guy plummeting though the railing an d straight down into the arena. He glanced down into the pit. "Where'd Satsuki go?"

Kakashi regarded him for a moment. "She followed Gaara. He's a jinchuriki and will try to unleash the demon onto the village."

"Think she'll need back up?"

"I'm tempted to say _no_ but if you can throw any more of these punches, I'm sure she'd appreciate your help," Kakashi pointed out. There was a loud rumbling sound from the direction of the front gates. Huge snakes rose from plumes of smoke and began to make their way towards the village. As if in response, three huge toads appeared in the same fashion. "Hm, seems we'll have our work cut out for us," Kakashi remarked and vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto noticed that the silver haired man had neglected to tell him in which direction Gaara had gone. Well... Maybe I can do something about this then," he muttered, looking up at the purple barrier that towered over the booth the Kage had been in.

* * *

Hiruzen had expected a lot from this invasion but not both of his teachers. Reanimated as they may be, they were not nearly as strong as they had been when still breathing but they were a force to be reckoned with none the less. It wouldn't have been that much of a problem to beat Orochimaru alone, but beating him and the First and Second Hokage alone didn't seem possible. There was no help to be expected. The barrier around him was as good as unbreakable and would probably require Jiraiya and Tsunade at the same time to bring down.

Things looked grim and he was growing tired of this fight when the unbreakable barrier suddenly shattered like glass. A part of the roof exploded away and the boy with the many arms was catapulted so high into the air that Hiruzen could no longer see him.

Orochimaru, eyes wide with surprise, turned to whomever ad just obliterated what was supposed to be an unbreakable technique, only to immediately jump to the other side of the roof, as if in fright.

Hiruzen's eyebrows rose and he, too, took a moment to look over at his savior. He almost flinched back. The young man appeared absolutely casual. His pose was relaxed, his expression more bored than anything else and he didn't seem the slightest bit winded. Aside from that, it was Naruto. That alone almost gave Hiruzen a heart attack. But what had him shiver, what had his fight or flight reflex scream at him to bail was this unbearable feeling of being in the presence of something utterly superior and deadly. Naruto emanated an aura of immeasurable power. His eyes were frozen fire, an icy blue yet a blazing fury, threatening to consume them all.

The First and Second Hokage immediately moved to attack the intruder, mindless puppets as they were. Hiruzen only needed a moment to remember that Naruto was not a trained ninja, that he had failed the academy years ago. Overpowering a body flicker hat almost tore his legs off, Hiruzen got himself in between Naruto and the two Kage.

His adamantine staff raised, he was ready to defend the boy he considered a grandson.

Only... nothing came to fend off.

The body of the second Hokage suddenly evaporated, as did most of the building underneath him. There wasn't even a shred that remained. But Naruto stood there, not half a foot away from the still in itself collapsing crater, his left hand a fist that actually steamed a bit. Hiruzen couldn't even blink twice before Naruto vanished again, his eyes unable to follow him.

The apex of the roof suddenly blew up as well, the sheer force behind it destroyed most of the tree Hashirama had grown in their fight. The First Hokage was gone just as well. He spotted Naruto in the very center of all the destruction and he found himself taking a step back again. The feeling of immeasurable danger didn't subside.

"You alright, old man?" Naruto called out to him, his stance entirely too casual for all this.

"Naruto," he began, still shaken. "Is that really you?"

The blonde looked shrewdly at him. "What? We met just a few days ago! You didn't seriously forget what I look like?"

No, that was Naruto alright. So why was he so strong? Apparently, the conversation wasn't to be held now when Orochimaru's Kusanago shot out from all the smoke and rubble, directly at him. Caught off guard, Hiruzen wasn't able to raise his staff in time.

But apparently there had been no cause for worry. Naruto had caught the sword, half an inch before it could pierce the old Hokage's heart. The feeling of danger turned into one of utter helplessness as Naruto's expression twisted into one of absolute fury.

"Oi," he growled menacingly down to where Orochimaru crawled out of the rubble, sword hanging from his mouth. "What's the big idea?"

Orochimaru's chuckle was just a tad less enthusiastic than it usually was. "My, my, how exceedingly rude to interrupt. I was just having a word with my teacher and- _GURGH_!"

With a vicious pull Naruto tore the Kusanagi from Orochimaru's mouth, more or less tearing tongue and jaw apart. Then, much to Orochimaru's obvious outrage, Naruto shattered the sword into a million pieces. Not that it seemed to bother him that the Kusanagi was supposed to be unbreakable as well. "This is as far as you go, tongue freak."

There was no witty reply. Orochimaru stepped backwards, eyes wide with actual fear. Naruto took a step in his direction and without any hesitation dashed right at him. Orochimaru jumped back but Naruto caught him midair. His fist impacted with his torso and absolutely destroyed it. There was no flash of light, no outcry of some technique. Just what had to be the most powerful punch Hiruzen had ever seen and a shower of gore as Orochimaru's body was reduced to a smear on the roof and wherever the rest of his body would go.

And then there was a beat of silence. _Holy mother of-_

"Fuck me sideways," someone to his left voiced, "He manhandled Orochi-fucking-maru!"

Hiruzen's mouth was still agape as he glanced at the redhead the dug her way out of the rubble. "I guess he did," he said lamely. He himself could barely belief it.

"Holy shit I'm free!" the redhead exclaimed suddenly, clutching her neck, "Take that, Kin you bitch!"

The ANBU flooded the roof and countless other ninja appeared. Only the Hiruzen realized that Naruto, who hadn't even passed the academy, had just now single-handedly obliterated three Kage level shinobi in under twenty seconds. All of it with just one punch each.

He was seriously getting to old for this shit.


	2. Chapter 2

Satsuki didn't know what was going on anymore. No matter how often she demolished Gaara's freaky arm, it always grew back, stronger and faster than before. Her eyes made it easy to see his attacks but they were reaching a point where she could no longer follow through on what she saw. With her Sharingan it was like watching everything crawl at a snails pace, even the rather fast attacks. But at this point, Satsuki's body was beginning to tire and she barely managed to twist midair around one of the grotesque claws that grew out of the arm.

Her own probably fractured forearm didn't make things any better and she was beginning to run low on chakra. Satsuki landed on the highest tree branch she could, out of reach from the demon on the forest ground. She took a moment to breath and threw a solider pill into her mouth. They tasted horrible but the substance was so packed with nutrients and stimulants, it momentarily boosted her chakra pool. With this she had just enough chakra to do another Chidori and maybe body flicker away if it failed. Gaara howled thunderously on the ground, thrashing around and toppling trees left and right. It was only a matter of time before her tree got-

The monstrous limb snapped her tree like a twig and sent her falling to the ground without any means to catch herself. A second arm grew form the original halfway down it's length and aimed at her. This was beyond bad. There was no way she could dodge midair so she was left with attacking it directly. She watched the sand approach at the usual snails pace, she'd get to see every grain of sand before it consumed her.

_Great, really._

But then, at the edge of her vision on the forest floor, a man walked into the clearing. And just that would have her gape if she had the time. Because he walked at normal speed. Absolutely casual, even though she could see the cracks in the ground every single one of his steps left behind and the dust he kicked up. He scratched his head, looking around, absolutely out of place in a world that moved not even at one-hundredth of it's actual speed. That guy, whoever, moved like he was out for a walk. Satsuki's perception of the world was painfully slow, so slow that it felt like minuets had already trickled buy since she fell off the tree when it originally had only been ten seconds, speed of thought and all that. That meant, that this guy moved over a hundred times faster than Gaara's attack, so fast that it now merely looked normal to her.

She and Gaara were over a few dozen feet in the air and even though she was more or less about to die, Satsuki found that she couldn't look away from the guy that was apparently searching for them, absolutely casual, while moving faster than the speed of sound. He was about her age, a good bit taller though. His short blonde hair was far too vibrant to be a Yamanaka and even though his body was completely covered in clothing, the Sharingan could see the terribly powerful muscles moving underneath. But suddenly, his head snapped up and her eyes met is.

Satsuki shivered. They were the brightest blue she had ever seen, so bright they seemed to glow in the shadowy forest. Then he smiled at her, a gentle smile that definitely had no place in this situation, while he was watching her be skewered by a monstrous appendage of sand. Her eyes glanced back at the limb that was still approaching her. There were merely eight feet between her and it. Her good arm was still moving upwards, the lightning already gathering in it's palm. When her eyes returned to the blonde man, he was just bending his knees and looked about ready to jump.

He couldn't be serious, right? He'd never be fast enough to-

The ground underneath his feet almost blew apart in an instant as he kicked off and shot up towards her. He was moving fast now, so fast that his outlines blurred and not even a heartbeat passed before the air resistance and gravity slowed him down just enough to approach Gaara's appendage at visible speed. His eyes were still locked with hers as he grabbed one of the sand spikes and swung himself over to her. Satsuki couldn't even blink at him. Who in the world was that guy?

His touch was surprisingly gentle as he snuffed out the gathering lighting in her palm before closing it like he hadn't just touched an actual lightning strike with his bare hand. He moved both of her arms to be in front of her chest and she didn't have the mental capacity left to even resist as she was busy comprehending what the fuck as going on. A spike of Gaara's monster hand came into her field of vision as it moved over the guy's shoulder, missing it by half an inch. He smiled at her before using that spike to swivel around. She saw it crack under his grip.

Suddenly all the casualness vanished, his back tensed and every single muscle in his body coiled and bulged. Satsuki could see every single ridge in his back through his shirt. A feeling of primal fear grasped her heart. Whoever he was, he was beyond dangerous. Gaara's claws must have been scratching his face by then, but he suddenly cocked his fist back, so fast she could barely see it, and struck.

Even though sound was pretty strange while having the Sharingan active and always sounded dampened a bit, drawn out and slow, the unmistakable crack of the sound barrier being broken still had her ears ring. She had watched every muscle uncoil with enough power obliterate an entire mountain and couldn't even follow his arm as it lashed out.

It was a display of superior power. Her Sharingan captured the sand turning into glass and molten stone upon impact, heated to the melting point by all the energy he put into the punch. The air rippled visibly as the explosion of force moved through the forest. Gaara's monster arm was utterly obliterated. The force the punch had sent into it tore it apart into every single grain it had been made off. The spectacle hadn't even finished when the young man turned around to her again.

For the first time she noticed the whisker marks and she almost deactivated her Sharingan in surprise. _No freakin' way..._

Naruto was the only person in the entire village with these peculiar markings on his jawline and cheeks. She remembered the bratty, loud boy that had constantly challenged her and got his ass handed to him every single time. What the hell had happened to him?

Idly Satsuki mused that exactly seventeen seconds had passed since she had been dropped out of the tree. Her chakra was almost at it's limit and her eyes would soon deactivate. She watched as the shock wave of his own punch hit him in the back and she barely had a moment to realize why he had folded her hands in front of her. His body crashed into hers and they were both propelled away along with pieces of glass and sand.

Her Sharingan deactivated and everything accelerated. The world blurred as they were blown through the forest and his arms held her body close. Now that was going too far. She elbowed his chest (_which felt like a god damn rock_) and pushed herself off him. She twirled a few times midair and took a moment to regain her equilibrium. She hit a tree trunk with both feet and managed to stick to it.

Naruto hit a tree as well but instead of sticking to it, his feet both _dug into the wood_, sinking in to his ankles.

"You alright?" he asked casually, smiling at her. Ugh, that was almost as annoying as Kakashi.

The aura of danger had dissipated. Satsuki, however, remained wary. "Who are you?" she asked. Because there was no way that an academy dropout could be this fast and strong.

His face fell and all but pouted at her. "Oh come on!" he whined. "I know it's been a few years but I recognized you just as well, didn't I?"

"You want me to believe that you are Naruto Uzumaki? The dead last of the academy who didn't even manage to graduate?"

He blew out a breath, pouting even harder. "Gosh, you're so mean, Satsuki! I know how I was back then! I changed, is all." Then he added under his breath, "Trained my ass off too."

She had heard him, of course. "Training for three years doesn't make you this strong." And not that... handsome, she added mentally. Hadn't he been smaller than her?

"Well it did for me," he returned petulantly. "Besides, I was just-"

Out from the corner of her eyes, she managed to spot the wave of sand, just before it was about to crash down on him. "Look out!" she shouted, but it was too late.

The tsunami of sand washed over him and the tree he had been stuck to, toppling it and a good part of the forest all around him. Satsuki cursed under her breath and retreated back out of danger. Sand upon sand kept washing into the forest. It piled upon it self, building a literal mountain that rose higher and higher into the sky until it towered high above the trees.

"What in kami's name-!" she spat, staring up at the thing that formed out of the sand.

**"I am FREE!"** it bellowed, raising two humongous arms into the sky. It had a single, enormous tail that was even longer and thicker than it's already huge arms. It looked like some huge, overgrown and fat teddy bear made of sand with a maniacal face and menacing golden eyes. And, smack dab in the center of it's forehead, was Gaara, apparently passed out.

With every step it took towards the village, the ground shook. Waves of sand splashed from every impact and buried the forest underneath it's mass. How in the world was she going to stop that thing?

"OI!" a voice cried from the monster's feet, "What the hell is your problem!"

There, at the feet of the sand colossus, was Naruto. Satsuki's couldn't believe her eyes. There wasn't even a scratch on him! She had seen Lee almost be turned into minced meat from something like that!

The monster stared down at him. **"What?****"** it roared in amusement, **"A puny human to stand in my way? I will teach you a lesson!"**

It cocked back it's left arm and punch at the ground where Naruto stood. The resulting earthquake almost had her loose her footing and a sandstorm blew through the forest. She had to shield her eyes from all the sand. What was wrong with this guy? He had moved faster than sound before! Why didn't he dodge?

The blow left a dusty crater where once a nice patch of forest had been. But, at the very center of it, stood Naruto. Not a scratch to his person, looking more annoyed than anything else.

**"What sorcery is this!?" **the beast shrieked in fury and Satsuki could feel the beginning of a massive buildup in chakra.

This was wrong. That monster there was reforming the landscape with a single blow yet Naruto looked like it had merely thrown a handful of sand at him! Not even his clothes were affected! Was it a genjutsu? She activated her Sharingan just to be sure, for the first time trying to read him, and flinched back in terror.

Her eyes were able to see a lot of things. Minuscule movements of muscles and just about everything that was as big as a grain of sand. She could see chakra and through most genjutsu and could, at times, experience some kind of premotion that her brain could construct with the information she got from reading and opponents movements. What she saw when she tried to read Naruto was... _terrifying_. Every fiber of her body told her that he could erase her very existence. Her brain screamed at her to flee, to get away as fast as possible and not look back. His every move, just a twitch of his finger, promised nothing short of death. He emanated an aura of immense danger, of peerless power. All in all, no matter how Satsuki looked at him, _he didn't feel human._

The beast opened it's maw wide and an incredible mass of chakra began to gather just above it's fangs of sand. But, no matter how she looked at it, the feeling of danger she got from it didn't even compare to Naruto.

A ball of dense, _evil_ feeling chakra formed in the air above the monster's mouth. It grew and grew in size until it was almost as big as the beast's belly. Then it suddenly condensed even further, smaller and smaller it shrunk until it was no bigger than one of the monster's eye balls. And then it swallowed it.

Naruto, in his defense, looked rather unimpressed and actually seemed to be waiting for the attack. And Satsuki had to admit that she didn't think it would eve harm him.

**"Die, Vermin!" **the tailed beast howled and spat the ball of condensed chakra back at Naruto.

Satsuki's vision went white in a flash of light.

* * *

Naruto had to give the grumpy sand thing that it knew how to throw a punch but what was this ball supposed to do to him? It was blazing hot, sure, but that didn't mean it could hurt him!

Ah.

And there went his clothes.

Well, maybe he should have seen that coming. After all, they weren't fireproof. The heat rolled into the carter all around him, turning the sand into glass. Frowning, he noted how the explosion would eradicate most of the forest. He should have thought of that before-

_Oh shit! Satsuki!_

Great, there was no way she had gotten away far enough for the explosion to miss her! He threw a mean right hook right at the sand giant and jumped as hard as he could in the direction he remembered Satsuki to last be in. He tore through the wall of molten sand and glass into the forest and spotted her already quite far away above the trees. Well damn, she was pretty fast as well.

His punch blew up in the monster's face and tore right through it's torso, leaving a gaping hole behind.

**"Y-You little-!"**

Apparently a monster made of sand didn't need a windpipe to breath. Yet another thing he could have thought off. He glanced at Satsuki who was rapidly doing back flips, gracefully manipulating her fall to land on a tree branch overlooking it all. Her black eyes lit up in crimson and almost immediately found him, standing at the edge of the crater. Though she averted them immediately after her eyebrows rose.

_Right. Naked._

Hm, these eyes were interesting. They could see a lot faster than she could move.

As the sand underneath his feet began to shift, Naruto took a step to the side. The vicious spike of sand that had erupted from the ground missed him by an inch. The sand thing was rapidly regenerating, the hole in it's torso as good as gone.

"Well would you look at that," he mused aloud, "It didn't die after one punch." That was new.

_And exciting!_

"Bring it, you walking sandbox!"

* * *

Satsuki's skin still stung from the heat wave that had rolled over her. The shock wave pushed her back a fair distance but she remained unharmed. Landing on a tree branch she dared to use what little chakra she had left to observe what had happened.

A big part of the forest had been turned into a wasteland of sand, glass and molten rock. Small fires had been ignited in the forest around them and the ground level at the center of the crater had lowered by at least 50 yards. Curiously enough Naruto wasn't in there. Instead she caught him move towards her.

Naked.

Obviously his clothes had been burnt away. Why his hair had survived all that was beyond Satsuki's comprehension, as was his sheer resilience. And because her Sharingan gifted her with a eidetic memory, it had taken but one glance for her to burn the image of him, naked and covered in a thin layer of ash and sand, to burn into her memory. _Great_. She averted her eyes and peered at the sand colossus, who had been pierced by some humongous blow Satsuki hadn't managed to catch.

The sand underneath Naruto's feet lashed out at him but he simply swayed a step to the side, not even tensing. He turned to the monster, his jaw moving but she couldn't read is lips from here, as it repaired itself.

Then he vanished. The ground tore asunder form where he had been standing, uprooting more trees in the process. Satsuki could barely follow him as she shot towards the beast and-

_**BOOM!**_

A wave of pressure hit her, far far greater than the explosion had been. For a split second, the Uchiha lacked the air to breath and with an almighty crack the sand creature simply disintegrated, the force of whatever Naruto had done reducing the sand into something even finer than dust, beyond her scope of vision, scattering it with the winds. The entire forest behind the sand colossus had simply disappeared, eradicated down to the last tree. In a straight line, farther than she could see, and at least three dozen feet deep, the forest had been craved from the face of the earth.

All that remained was Naruto, holding the unconscious Gaara under his left arm. His right first was steaming and he was still naked but he didn't even look the slightest bit winded as he fell down the the earth.

"What the actually hell are you?" she breathed. This was too unreal. Not even Itachi could have done that. No one should be able to do something like that! _No one! _This guy, Naruto, was too strong. It shouldn't be possible. What had he done to become such a... a... _monster_?

And... how could she do the same?

* * *

Hiruzen Sarutobi did not know what to think. Though he always knew that Naruto did carry the will of fire and he always had this power shimmer in his eyes, this display of raw power did not add up with everything that had happened prior. Hiruzen remembered how devastated Naruto had been when he failed to graduate, how hurt he had been. There had been a time when the old Hokage wondered if Naruto would ever recover from this. He had been relieved to see that the boy didn't seem to be broken though. He had occasionally watched Naruto through his crystal ball, saw him work out (nothing out of the ordinary, though) and do odd jobs for the nicer part of the village population. He dropped under the radar. Under the Hokage's radar just as well.

Hiruzen and Kakashi hadn't even reached the edge of the forest when a massive attack annihilated the tailed beast, gouging a wound deep into the land and far beyond.

"Holy shit."

Hiruzen couldn't help but agree with Kakashi's uncharacteristic exclamation. "This is... unnatural."

"You mean incredible, Lord Hokage," Kakashi said. His Sharingan eye was trained on the patch of scorched earth from where the attack had originated. "There... there was no chakra involved at all. Just raw, monstrous power."

"... Are you absolutely certain?" the Hokage inquired.

"One hundred percent," the jonin said. "Naruto's power equals-"

"The Kyuubi's," Hiruzen finished. He shook his head. "But the seal is locked tight. Jiraiya made sure to tighten it after Naruto would no longer pursue a ninja career."

Kakashi slouched against the tree he was standing on. "Then again, I'm sure not even the Kyuubi could have taken out one of his kind like that."

The Hokage nodded, eyes running up and down the mangled forest. "Exactly," he said gravely, "And that's what scares me."

"What do you want us to do, Lord Hokage?" Kakashi asked, pulling his headband over his Sharingan. Three masked figures dropped out of the canopy from above, two men and one, purple haired woman.

Hirzuen briefly glanced at them before his eyes returned to the devastation Naruto had inflicted upon the landscape with what seemed to have been a single punch. "ANBU," he began gravely, "I want you to closely observe Naruto Uzumaki. Anything out of the ordinary, and if it's just a strange diet, you will report directly to me. Twenty Four hours of surveillance. Understood?"

"Understood, Lord Hokage!" all four responded.

Kakashi slipped a mask resembling a canine over his already half masked face. He nodded to the purple haired woman and both of them jumped into the direction of Naruto.

* * *

"Train me!"

Naruto stared at her for a second, not sure if he had heard right. "Uh... What?" he asked, shifting Gaara's weight a bit.

Satsuki's Sharingan spun a tad faster and her lips thinned. "I want you to train me!"

So... yeah, he hadn't heard wrong. "But... why?"

"Why?" she echoed, obviously not understanding why he couldn't follow. "Because I need to be stronger!"

Naruto scratched his chin. Wasn't she already plenty strong? Like... rookie of the year? Then again, that had been some time ago. He also dimly remembered her telling him something once. Well, snarled at him, really.

"To kill your brother?" he asked, meeting her crimson gaze.

The sole mention of the man that had slaughtered her family turned her sharp and determined features into an ugly snarl, her eyes almost glowing with palpable hate. She made a dismissive noise through her teeth, just short of spitting the sour taste from her mouth, Naruto imagined. "Yes," she hissed venomously. "To defeat him, I need to become stronger!"

That, Naruto mused, was probably true. Honestly, Satsuki _was _strong but not exactly strong like he had heard people describe Itachi's prowess in battle. For a second Naruto wondered what it would be like to fight Itachi. Maybe he could take more than one punch...

"Uhm... I guess I can...?" he said, knowing that she was unlikely to leave him alone otherwise. But... how in the world would he train her?

* * *

Yugao had guarded Naruto when he had been a child. Often she had shared the duty with Kakashi or Tenzo-_ wait, he was called Yamato these days_\- and had been treated to a lot of heart ache, hilarity, and wonder. Naruto had been a happy child, though at times he had fallen into a state too close to depression for her liking. Her assignment had been called off when Naruto was kicked out of the academy and she hadn't had the chance to observe him since then.

Question was, how did a academy dropout go from dead last to manhandling Orochimaru of the Sannin and defeating a Tailed Beast in a span of half an hour? And why in the world was Satsuki Uchiha, most frigid and severe woman in all of Konoha, follow him around like some lost puppy? A puppy that occasionally tried to murder him (very unsuccessfully at that)?

She watched Naruto stifle a yawn as he tilted his body back an inch, moving out of the way of the Uchiha's vicious axe kick. Yugao wasn't sure if the evasive movement had been intentional because it sure didn't look like it.

"Fight me already!" the Uchiha hissed, trying to bring her knee straight into Naruto's face. Yugao imagined that Satsuki wanted to gleam a way to power from Naruto. Well, it didn't seem to work well so far.

Naruto caught her knee with his pinky finger, pushing it down with a movement so gently it couldn't have disturbed the surface of calm water but somehow there was enough force behind it to slam Satsuki's knee towards the ground. The Uchiha was forced into a kneeling position, one knee burred half a foot into the street and she yelped in surprise.

"Kinda amazing, isn't it?" Kakashi asked from behind her.

Yugao almost flinched. Only Kakashi seemed to be able to sneak up on her these days. "I can't fathom where his power comes from," she said, glancing up at the tall, silver haired man.

Kakashi shrugged. "Maybe it really is all that ramen. Eats more than his mother ever did."

Yugao suppressed a laugh. "If so, I think I never could attain this kind of power. Too salty."

"Much like cute little Satsuki, hm?" Kakashi drawled, nodding his head to the cussing and fuming Uchiha, hounding after Naruto.

Yugao elbowed him. "You aren't allowed to call her cute anymore," she chided, "She's years past that."

"Hmm," Kakashi hummed in thought, "Maybe that's true." He nudged her shoulder, something that he only ever seemed to do to her. Hitting Yamato over the head didn't count. "Want me to take the night watch?"

She shook her head. "No worries. I doubt it'll be boring, I don't think she'll let him sleep tonight."

"Ohoho!" Kakashi suddenly laughed, she eyed him strangely. "Is that what you think they'll do? My how naughty of you..."

"What are you-?" Yugao shut her mouth with an audible clack. "I did _not_ think that! You god damn perv, Kakashi!"

"I didn't say anything," he dismissed, his eye smirking at her. "You however..."

"Fine," she snapped. "You take the night shift." Thank kami he couldn't see her blush though the mask. Idiot. She almost messed up her body flicker when he chuckled at her flustered behavior.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Here we are. Took me long enough, I guess. Don't hate me?**

**PS: I credit the Sharingan with the ability to experience premotions (images of a possible short term future) based on observation. I didn't bother looking up if that was an actual thing, but I used it here. **

**:3**

* * *

After the attack on Konoha, which had done far less damage than it should have, the leader had decided that now was the best time to find the nine tail's jinchuriki. Itachi and his partner Kisame had been dispatched to collect the boy. Given that he hadn't even made it into the genin corps, it should be and easy task, right? For Itachi, it was also the opportunity to see how his little sister was doing. The fact that Orochimaru was trying to get her was no surprise to him, but apparently she had decided to stay with Konoha for now, even with the mark probably festering on her body. The very idea let his Sharingan swirl madly. If he ever got to see Orochimaru again before he died, he would massacre him for weeks on end before he'd let him die with kunai in his heart.

The gates were sparsely guarded, he and Kisame got inside without anyone even taking note of them. "We will make this quick," he told his partner. "The boy is most likely untrained and-"

"On a date with your sister, more likely."

Itachi seldom lost his composure. Actually, he never did. Not up until then. "What?" he asked lowly, trying to keep his eyes from glowing like torches.

Kisame, as the bigger of the two of them, looked over the crowded market, observing. "Blonde, whiskers, blue eyes. Our target, yes?" Itachi merely nodded. "Right, your sister then. Raven hair, a ridiculously severe face and charcoal eyes. Correct?"

Itachi turned in the direction Kisame had been looking at. "Correct," he said tersely, moving through the crowd, towards the other side of the market. His Sharingan glowed lowly, compulsing the people around him to step out of the way. The crowd thinned and he scanned the few stalls for whatever Kisame had seen and, sure enough, in a food stall was his sister, eating with one Naruto Uzumaki. A deep breath and prayer later, Itachi turned to his partner.

"We need to lead the boy away. Too many people for a large scale genjutsu, the ANBU will notice," he told him.

Kisame straightened the bandaged sword on his back, displaying his sharp teeth in a wide grin. "Could it be that you merely want to break up your sister's date?"

Itachi's black eyes shimmered red for half a second before he caught himself. "The target, Kisame," he said again. "We will wait until he is in a more manageable environment."

"Like when he plows your sister in his home?" the blue skinned man asked nonchalantly, yawning for emphasis.

Itachi didn't respond. This had been an assignment. Just some job he had to do in order to stick close to the Akatsuki. Now, though, it was personal. The Uzumaki would died. No one touched his little sister.

* * *

Satsuki frowned as he felt a chill crawl up her spine. Probably from Naruto's eating habits. He all but inhaled his meals... How did he turn these noodles into nutrition for all that power he put out? Was that some kind of secret recipe? Couldn't possibly be the case. There were no tomatoes! She had to admit, though, that it wasn't bad altogether, so it was a small sacrifice to make in order to be trained by him.

"How often do you train?" she asked.

He paused, eyes darting over to her. He swallowed before speaking, which kind of surprised her. "Every day," he said. Returning to his bowl - _the seventh, goddammit_ \- he shrugged. "Though a year or two ago, I trained three times a day, like, all day."

Aha! Actual information! "And what did you train? Chakra control? Seals?" Seals would most definitely explain a lot.

He looked at her like she had said something stupid. "Uh... no. I, well, no, none of those things."

Her eyes narrowed. So just physical training? Something more extreme than Lee, perhaps? "Physical then. What'd you focus on?"

Naruto appeared uncomfortable, avoiding her eyes. Was it an ungodly number? Or maybe it wasn't physical at all? Then what? What the hell had made him this strong? She was about to needle him for more details when she felt someone's eyes on her. She whirled around in her seat, and, for a split second, she imagined two crimson eyes staring back at her from the passing crowed but it was gone before she could even blink once. Her heart hammered wildly in her chest. What was that?

She shook her head. Her memories haunting her even during the day was nothing new. She'd stomach it, like everything else.

"You okay?"

The question took her aback. She didn't think she had let anything slip. His eyes were gentle, inquisitive, just like she remembered. Satsuki swallowed. "Of course," she said, more harshly than necessary. She finished her bowl in silence, knowing he was observing her out from the corner of his eye. "What do you care?"

He just shrugged, placing the chopsticks on the bow. "Thanks for the food, old man," he directed at the cook.

The man laughed. "Nothing to thank me for, Naruto. Though... if you promise to take Ayame out like you did with your girlfriend here..."

"DAD!" someone, obviously Ayame, squeaked from the kitchen.

_Girlfriend_. Saitsuki rolled her eyes. As if she had time for things like that. As if she ever could have someone like that. Not after Itachi-

"Come on," Naruto said, hopping off his chair, "You said you wanted to bother me all day and we still have half of it left."

She threw him a withering glare, but followed him out of the ramen stand after an obligatory bow to the chef. "You'll show me how you got so strong," she demanded, following him into the crowded street.

She heard him sigh. "Well, I don't think I trained any harder than you did."

"How would you know that?"

He smiled sheepishly at her, eyes closed. "Oh, well, I still remember seeing you beat the shit out of a log on training ground... uh, 4 or something back there. I remember watching you and being so damn jealous. Though... I never did anything to get strong myself." He turned away, gaze skywards. "Until after I failed the academy, I couldn't see just how much work you put into the strength I envied so much." He shrugged again. "Guess I was just stupid that way."

His words gave her a pause she couldn't explain, the witty response took just a second longer than necessary as the words wouldn't get past her tongue. "You're still an idiot, idiot." There wasn't quite as much bite in her words as she had wanted. They walked in silence after that.

* * *

"Is that isolate enough for you?"

Itachi didn't even glance at Kisame when he answered. "Yes."

"And if he's already balls deep in your sister-"

"_Not_. _Another_. _Word_."

* * *

Training Ground 4 hadn't changed at all in the years that had passed. The training log she had abused in her academy time was still there. Naruto had a better memory than she would have ever credited him with.

"So you want me to train you, huh?" he mused aloud, strolling into the middle of the training ground. He turned to face her. "Well then, come at me."

Satsuki frowned. "That sounds very pointless," she observed. "I can barely keep up with my Sharingan. You could kill me before I could even flinch."

"Yes," he agreed casually, his eyes suffused with raw power. It made her knees weak. "But I don't have any techniques I could teach you, no scrolls or jutsu, no exercise you could do. So, the best solution, fight me, again and again, until you _can_ keep up."

It weren't just his eyes. His posture, still casual, _scared_ her. Every move, minuscule as it would be, had the potential power to snap her like a twig and kill her before she could plead for her life. He radiated power like the sun radiated light and all it took was a slight change in demeanor. Was he even human? She grit her teeth. It didn't matter. To kill Itachi, she need ed to be stronger. If she could glimpse even a fragment of Naruto's power and claim it as her own, it would be enough to bring down her brother.

Trying to calm her erratically beating heart, she activated her Sharingan and charged.

* * *

They had lost track of them momentarily, but when Itachi spotted them again, his sister was sitting against a tree, clothes askew and breathing heavily. There was a lot he had endured, accepted and done himself for the safety of his sister, but _this_... this was his limit. Never before had he felt his Sharingan pulse this strongly before. These cursed eyes truly lived off hate and anger.

"I will capture him. See to my sister," he instructed, his voice monotone but there was a growl swaying with his words.

Kisame barked a laugh. "Oh I think he did that already."

Itachi dispersed in a murder of crows before he would kill his partner. He appeared in the center of the clearing his target was in, but was surprised to see him stare right at him the moment he materialized. His cool blue eyes betrayed no surprise. In fact, he appeared almost bored. Itachi's eyes flicked to Satsuki, who was still trying to catch her breath, and his Sharingan turned to the Mangekyou all by itself.

"Uzumaki Naruto," he said coolly, fury blazing in his eyes, "You will be coming with me."

"So you're Itachi, huh?" Naruto asked him, face dangerously impassive. "Here to finish the job, no?" He jerked his head at Satsuki, who was so thoroughly exhausted, she hadn't even taken notice of him. "And what would you need from me?"

Itachi tilted his head slightly. "You are a jinchuriki," he said, "The Akatsuki want your power, I will take you to them."

Naruto nodded, still perfectly at ease. "Oh, okay, you are one of those guys. Jiraiya mentioned you a while back." A smile, small and eerie, appeared on Naruto's lips. "Means you are pretty strong."

Involuntarily, Itachi took a step back. His eyes had shown him a premotion. And another, and another, over and over. His eyes predicted nothing but death. His own, swiftly and without even a chance to resist. His eyes narrowed. Was this a genjutsu? What in the world-

"Itachi!" Satsuki's voice called, fury and hate tainting it. She rose shakily to charge at him, but Naruto stopped her. "Let me-"

"Stay," he said simply, eyes still trained on him. "Not yet. You will get your chance."

Itachi caught himself. "A chance? Someone as weak as her has no chance. No hope, No future," he drawled monotonously.

Satsuki snarled at him, kicking off of the ground and jumping at him but the jinchuriki's arm brought her down easily.

"Didn't you admit that you can't beat him yet?" he asked her, finally taking his unsettling gaze off him. "If you fight him now, you will die."

Satsuki growled, still snarling at him, glaring death at him with a fully matured Sharingan. But, much to Itachi's surprise, she backed down.

Naruto turned his gaze back to him. "You won't get your fight today, seems like I can't just kill you either. But... your partner is here as well."

How had he-? "What makes you think you will survive?" he asked. "Kisame will tear you to shreds, just enough to take the nine tails from you." Sastuski's eyes widened considerably and she stared at the jinchuriki. She would despise him like the rest did.

Kisame stepped out of the forest, his sword hefted over his shoulder, grinning widely. "Samehada is hungry," he told them gleefully, "I heard you jinchuriki can take quiet a beating. Let's test that out."

"Don't kill him," Itachi reminded, turning his attention back to his little sister.

Out from the corner of his eye, Itachi observed as Kisame charged.

The boy didn't even move before the sword impacted with him full force. The ground gave way as the force of the blow shattered the stone and earth under the jinchuriki's feet. A great plume of dust was generated as the concussive force of Kisame's attack scattered dirt into the surrounding area. Itachi sighed.

"I told you not to kill him," he said. He observed the crater the attack had left. And was... stunned. Right in the very center of the crater, was Uzumaki, his legs driven into the ground to his knees, but otherwise unharmed. Not even his facial expression had changed. Kisame's sword, Samehada, however, had a _dent_ where it supposedly impacted with the jinchuriki's head.

Kisame gaped at the blonde boy. "What in the-!"

"That's it?" the jinchuriki commented morosely, stepping out of the ground with little effort. "You know, I expected an actual fight. Someone who cold take more than one punch."

As seasoned shinobi, Itachi had developed a keen instinct for judging potential danger, powerful enemies and risky situation. At this very moment, all of those told him that his chances of survival were at a point _well_ below nothing. The premotions returned, his eyes foreshadowing one single punch that came at his head before he could even blink, an elbow that served his head clean from the neck, a fist tearing through his gut, an axe kick that cleaved him clean in two. Death. Death. _Death_. Over and over all he could see as any possible move from Naruto was his own demise.

He took a step back, a tremor going through his body. Fear. He felt _fear_. Fear for his life, like he hadn't felt it since his genin days. Kisame didn't seem to have grasped the certainty of their death yet.

"Hard head, huh?" he growled. "You hurt Samehada! You will pay!" He went through a couple of handseals, Itachi recognized them as the Water Dragon Jutsu, but before he could verbally activate the technique, Naruto appeared in front of him. _Itachi hadn't seen him move_. His hand grabbed Kisame's head, the palm closing off his mouth.

"Yeah, can't have you flatten the place," the jinchuriki said, almost remorsefully as Kisame flailed uselessly against his grip. "Would have been cool to see what you were capable off." He reared back his other hand, fingers curling into a fist. "Shame, really."

For a second, Itachi dared to doubt a punch that sloppy without any kind of chakra backing it would do any damage to Kisame.

He was wrong.

His partners midsection vaporized upon impact. There hadn't been a single moment registered by Itachi's eyes in which the damage had unfolded gradually, but rather it all happened instantly. After the initial impact, the concussive force of the jinchuriki's punch rippled visible outwards through the air, tearing apart the rest of Kisame's body into a bloody mist. By the time the earth was blown apart underneath his feat, all that was left was Kisame's head in Naruto's hand, eyes still wide with surprise.

The head hit the ground with a dull thud, jolting Itachi out of his shock. "What are you?" he dared to ask as the dust settled. The boy didn't even seem affected after having displayed such power. Not even Pain could throw that much raw power around without one of his bodies going down.

"Me?" The jinchuriki shrugged. "Just some civilian in Konoha." And just as he said that, he hit Satsuki in the back of her neck. She slumped down, unconscious. His icy ice narrowed at him. "Let me make this very clear. I could kill you without moving from here. I should, really, considering what you did to your family. But Jiraiya told me what you are doing, your stupid reasons aside."

Itachi tried hard not to grimace. Why in the world would Jiraiya tell the jinchuriki all this? Then again, considering that he was as overpoweringly strong as Pain himself, it would at least seem reasonable. At least it would to someone like Jiraiya. Itachi scowled. He did not need this interference. After all he had done, whatever he had dreamed of in the future, was being ripped viciously from his hands and far out of his control.

"You own sister becomes nothing but some kind of rabid animal just by seeing you!" the jinchuriki spat at him. "You killed hundreds to spare her life but in the end, all you did was make it miserable!"

Better miserable than dead. Better miserable than succumbing to the fate that would have awaited her otherwise. Better miserable than going down the same path as all the others. Itachi tired not to grimace. He needed to leave. He couldn't win here, no now, and probably not ever. So he reverse summoned himself to the crows before anything more could happen.

He vanished in a small poof of smoke, one last glance at his little sister, burning the image into his mind.

* * *

Kakashi and Yugao emerged from the trees surrounding the training area the moment Itachi had vanished. Naruto didn't spare them a glance. He was in no mood to. Somewhere deep down, he thought that he might understand Itachi, could sympathize with what he did and why he did it. But, he told himself, there had to have been another way. One to solve that whole Uchiha situation stuff without just slaughtering them all. Naruto never got all the details, but he wouldn't have taken that way, no matter what.

He glanced down at Satsuki, breathing steadily. Well, how was he supposed to tell her that her brother wasn't actually a crazy murder and somehow still was a crazy murderer but with a good heart. He shook his head. This was one mess he hadn't expected to be involved in. Then again, he was a jinchuriki - _not that he had ever noticed that before_ \- so Itachi and all those other weirdos were trying to get the nine tails in his gut. Which meant that he would have to fight them. Ad that meant he would really prefer not to kill the only remaining family Satsuki had.

"Whose head is that?" Kakashi asked him evenly.

He was obviously still a bit on edge, given that he wasn't reading in his book. Naruto imagined that it was hard to try and comprehend his power. Heh, well, Kakashi wasn't the first one to have that particular problem. Naruto had a hard time grasping it when it suddenly made itself known, but now it was as easy as breathing.

"Dunno," Naruto answered. "Ki...saru? Kisama? Something like that?"

"Kisame," Yugao corrected, taking off her mask. She stared at him. "He was one of the Seven swords men of the mist."

Was that supposed to impress him? "Okay," he said, not really aring for who that guy was, so he picked up Satsuki instead. Damn, she was so light. And soft. "I'll take her home," he told them.

He vanished with a sonic boom, leaving a crater where he had been standing, before either of them could get a word in.

* * *

"You told him of Itachi?" Hiruzen asked his former student incredulously.

Jiraiya had the decency to look sheepish. "Yes, well, I wasn't allowed to tell him I'm his godfather. And I figured someone strong enough to one hit a bijuu could use the information a lot better than me."

The Hokage sighed, falling back into his chair. He massaged his brow with one hand, the other grabbing for his pipe. "We still don't know why he is that powerful," Hiruzen said testily. "If it stems form the Kyuubi-"

"The seal is in perfect condition," Jiraiya cut in sharply. "Minato would never have made a mistake with his own son!"

"That is not the point!" Hiruzen pointed out. "Seal or not, the Kyuubi is contained inside of Naruto's chakra system. Even I know that there is no fool proof way to completely seal a bijuu, not if one tries to harness it's power. And we both know that Minato wanted that to happen."

Jiraiya back down, harshly exhaling air from his nose. "It is a mistake to keep this from him. He needs to know who his parents are, better now than never."

"His parent's-" Hiruzen began, but Jiraiya slammed both palms hard into the desk.

"I know that they had enemies!" Jiraiya all but shouted. "But what does that matter if he's as strong as he is? What would Kumo or Iwa possibly do against someone who killed Orochimaru and a fully unleashed bujuu in the span of half an hour, and then ran circles around every ANBU in the village so he could eat twenty seven bowls of ramen in peace!" He took a deep breath. "Kakashi told me he needed half a day to even track him down, and then it turned out he had never left his home!"

Hiruzen remained silent as Jiraiya calmed down. "What would he do?" the old Hokage asked quietly. "Tell me, what would he do if he found out we kept this form him for such feeble reasons? Enemies of his parents? Pah!" he spat. "If he would have been surrounded my allies, by friends and his parents friends, no one would have been able to touch him. I merely told myself it was better this way."

Jiraiya stared at his old teacher for a moment before sitting back down in his chair. "How should be do this?" he asked. "Because I will tell him when I next see him."

The Hokage was silent, staring at the pipe in his hands. "It was a gift," he said eventually. "From Minato on the day he took over."

The toad sage remained silent.

"I... I will tell him," Hiruzen said, putting the pipe down. "You're right, and he deserves to know anyways."

* * *

Satsuki was in the foulest of moods since Orochimaru had trounced her in the exam. Not only had she been unable to fight Itachi, moreover did she have to admit that she couldn't have won either way. It made her angry, being so weak. The training post she was abusing cracked loudly as her heel dug into the wood, but it didn't break. With a furious growl she slammed her elbow into the same spot as hard as she could. Her entire arm burned as the impact rattled her bones, eliciting another wooden groan from the post. It didn't break.

She almost screamed as she drove her knee into it, followed by her entire body weight. With one last snap, the post broke in half, the top sent flying near the tree line.

Satsuki cursed under her breath. Seven hits. It took her seven hits to break a training post. Naruto had _vaporized_ a man with just _one_. A bit shaky, she stood and moved to the next training post, intent on shattering it with her next blow.

"Not much of a difference from how I trained."

She didn't flinch in surprise. Satsuki had know he was observing her for a while now. Naruto sat down on a stone, near the top half of the broken training post. He unpack something from a bag slung around his shoulder. Her nose twitched. Whatever it was, she could smell it from here. It reminded her of the fact that she hadn't eaten since noon the day before.

"You need to eat something," he said, "Unless, of course, you want to starve before you get strong enough to fight your brother."

Her Sharingan came alive, her gaze spitting venom at him. He wasn't affected. Satsuki wasn't surprised. But when her stomach growled loudly, almost painfully, she decided that maybe she really needed to eat something. Muscle didn't regenerate well on an empty stomach. Disgruntled, Satsuki sat down besides Naruto and took the wrapped food he offered.

It was a sandwich, lots of greens, a bit of meat and - most importantly - huge slices of tomatoes. She stared at it for a second. Why would he...? She decided she didn't care. From the first bite on, it tasted excellent, and it filled her more than she had expected it to. She had been a little lost, eating the delicious sandwich, for when Satsuki looked up again after she finished, she found Naruto staring bemusedly at her.

"What?" she asked defiantly. Was he expecting a thank you?

He shook his head, laughing. "No, nothing. It just seems you really, really like tomatoes. Even more than I thought you did." She noticed that he hadn't even finished half of his own sandwich.

She frowned. He was mocking her. She dropped the wrapping, put her left hand down on the stone and kicked off the ground. Her legs snapped up lighting fast, aimed at his head.

Her attack passed seemingly right through him.

How did he-? Satsuki hadn't even seen him move. She managed to reel her legs back in before she lost balance after the full spin. Her Sharingan flared alive, spinning as fast as she could force it to accelerate her perception even further. She lashed out again, this time with her elbow.

She saw him move this time. He smirked at her, a wide, easy smile. Her elbow came very close to his nose but he just leaned back out of it's way. Even though she could perceive everything faster now, she could not simply stop her recklessly thrown elbow. Even as she tried to reel back, Naruto stood up, casually walked around her and squatted down right in front of her.

"You want to fight? This soon after eating?" she read of his lips. "Well, be my guest."

She had a bad feeling about this. Her other arm was already on it's way to his midsection but he just grabbed it and without any warning threw her all across the Training field, over the trees, and towards Konoha. She barely held back a scream as she tumbled through the air.

Left standing in the field, Naruto scratched his cheek. "Well, I might have over done it with this one."

* * *

Kakashi observed how the young Uchiha heiress dragged herself back into her home by the skin of her teeth. He hadn't imagined Naruto to such a ruthless trainer, but whatever he did was utterly exhausting Satsuki to the point where she wouldn't keep her severity in place anymore. Yugao, who was watching Naruto, did not see any exhaustion on him. Instead, he looked rather thoughtful as he returned to his apartment.

She sat outside of his window in a tree, concealed by the leaves and an additional genjutsu just in case. Despite her stealth skills, Naruto, after he sat down on the windowsill, looked directly at her and waved her to come closer. Yugao was started, of course, but decided that it didn't matter anyways.

"Do you think I should fight the Akatsuki?" he asked of her.

She hesitated. "Well, they will come after you," she said carefully, "But in the end it's the Hokage who makes those decisions."

"But I'm not a Shinobi," he argued, "While I have to obey his law, I'm not at his command."

She licked her lips. "That is... not quite right," she told him. "As the jinchuriki, you are a military asset to the village."

He huffed. "Right, right. Of course there was something like that." He pushed off the windowsill and opened the window for her. "Tea?" he offered, smiling sheepishly.

Yugao almost gaped at him. Had she been eight years younger... She accepted anyways, and climbed in trough the window. "Please," she said a little belatedly.

With a nod, he headed into the small kitchen. When Yugao had sat down, he sighed loudly.

"You know," he began, putting a kettle on the stove. "I think I might be in love with Satsuki."

"Oh." Well, it wasn't that unexpected. "And why do you say it like it's a bad thing?"

He paused after opening a cabinet. Yugao spied a lot of cup ramen stashed away right besides a box, probably filled with tea, and cereals. "It isn't?"

Yugao almost laughed. "Naruto," she said, "Satsuki could most definitely use someone like you in her life. She's... well, she needs something else in her life..."

"Aside from revenge?" Naruto supplied. "Hollow and false revenge?" He shook his head, turning to face her, leaning against the stove. "She's... incredibly single minded. It's all about killing her brother. And even though he probably deserves it, it's not for the reason she wants to." He abruptly closed his mouth, eyes wide as he peered nervously at her. Yugao merely returned a curious glance. "Uh... you... you do know about the whole Itachi being a double agent thing, right?"

"_That's_ what made you nervous?" she asked him incredulously. "Not admitting to someone you knew for maybe two weeks that you are in love?"

"Well, yeah!" he exclaimed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "As far as I know, there's a death sentence on spilling that! And I don't wanna fight all of you guys, you know?"

The kettle behind him began to shriek softly as the steam escaped it's lid. When Naruto turned back around, Yugao shook her head in amusement. As she watched him pour two cups, she wondered if he could break Satsuki out of her thirst for revenge. Itachi's reasons for doing what he had done... well, maybe if there had been more time. Itachi had been forced into this situation and choose the one way he could go at the time to save his sister. Even if it was a bloody one.

"Thank you," she said when he placed a cup in front of her. On a side note, Yugao acknowledged to herself that Naruto could probably really fight all of them at once and would emerge victorious. It was... unsettling, to say the least. Naruto didn't act like he possessed all the strength in the world, even though it certainly looked like it. His modesty was almost scary.

"So?" he said, tacking a sip from his tea, "What do you propose I do about it?"

She blinked. Why was he asking her that? "Well, fighting the Akatsuki is-"

"Not _that_," he huffed, waving his hand dismissively. "About Satsuki!"

She sighed. Only he would be able to think about the girl instead of the organization with a supposed _god_ leading them that was coming after him. Yugao took a sip from her tea. It was surprisingly good. Before she could even start lecturing him on how to woo a woman and be as little as possible like Kakashi in that way - because that didn't work on woman (aside from her) - there was a single knock on the door, followed by it's opening.

"Who could that be?" Naruto wondered, rising from his seat.

Yugao was only mildly surprised when the Hokage himself stuck his head into the kitchen. A single key dangled from a leather band he held in his hand. It looked worn, almost rusty. "I see you didn't change the look at all, Naruto," he said by way of greeting, barely even glancing at he, which either meant she was fine and he had known she had been here, or she was in huge trouble for drinking tea with the person she was supposed to observe form the shadows.

Naruto grinned at him. "Why would I? No one tries to break in here." The '_Anymore_' was left unspoken. "Sit with us," he offered the Hokage.

"It's been too long since I was last here," Hiruzen admitted ruefully as he took a seat at the small table, thanking Naruto quietly as he poured him a cup.

"So what brings you here, old man?" Naruto asked, "Is this about the Akatsuki stuff? Because I have bigger problems right now."

Yugao snorted into her tea cup. Bigger problems, indeed.

* * *

"You return alone."

Itachi merely nodded curtly. The unblinking eyes of Pain, even as a projection, were unsettling. The eyes of a god. "Kisame has been killed," he said. "The Kyuubi's vessel has grown far to strong."

The silhouette of Pain that hovered over the skeletal thumb of the showed no reaction whatsoever, the Rinnegan eyes still staring at him unblinkingly. "Has he gained control over the beast?"

Itachi had no idea. There had been no outward signs of that, in fact, there hadn't even been signs of chakra at all. "No," he said after a minute pause. "And yet he was able to kill Kisame with nothing but a punch to the stomach." Itachi couldn't tell if Pain was unsettled by this, but he knew that he himself still was.

"I see," Pain said simply. "Hidan and Kakazu are already on their way. I imagined your sister would distract you."

Itachi whole body tensed. "My weak little sister has-"

"You may leave," Pain interrupted him, "Prepare with Sasori and Deidara to take Shukaku," and the projection vanished, leaving Itachi alone with the Demonic statue.

Self proclaimed god against godlike powers. Itachi wondered who would win, and if he'd be alive to see it.

* * *

"_Maaan_! I need to fucking kill someone already! My god demands sacrifice!"

"Hidan," a hooded man growled, scowling at the silver haired man that was strutting ahead of him. "Shut the hell up. If I can't get my money because you messed up, I will cash in _your_ bounty!"

"Jashin demands sacrifice!" Hidan hollered back, throwing his arms and his three bladed scythe into the air.

The hooded man, Kakuzu, sighed. "Fine, have it your way. We are close to Konoha anyways. Kill whomever you want. _After_ the job is done."

Hidan grinned maniacally, licking the blade of his scythe. "This is going to be fun!"

* * *

**A/N: This story won't be especially long. Maybe two more chapters. And the gods only know when I get to sit down and write those... **

**:3**


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